Jett Lawrence provides timeline for injury return after difficult 2026 season

Australian motocross superstar Jett Lawrence has provided his first update since undergoing surgery at the end of the 2026 AMA Pro Motocross season. The former champion, who lost out on the title to his older brother Hunter earlier this year, missed the three SMX Playoff rounds after battling an ongoing ankle injury which he sustained during training all the way back in January.

The injury was a major talking point throughout the 2026 campaign. After missing the Supercross portion of the season entirely, Jett returned for the Motocross rounds in Pala but was clearly not back to the peak of his powers at any point throughout the year. Nonetheless, Jett managed to pick up four overall wins and a further five podiums to push his brother all the way to the final round at the Ironman National.

Despite flashes of brilliance which the 23-year old Honda rider has become known for, the three-time 450cc champion never really looked at 100% even on the weekends where he was winning, and had to rely on his pure natural talent to see off the likes of Haiden Deegan and Jorge Prado on several occasions.

At the conclusion of the Pro Motocross campaign, Jett announced that he would undergo a further surgery on his ankle, which he previously described in brutal detail:

"Dislocated my ankle and my tibia, smashed the top of my talus, and that was what really broke my talus into three. Ended up getting 11 screws and four pins. having to go in for a second surgery and get a screw taken out and also one of the fragments rose up and then healed like that and my tibia was hitting that. So, we need to get that shaved down because I wouldn't have been able to ride if I had that."

In a recent appearance on the Jaxxon Sports Podcast hosted by former paintball player Bear Degidio, Jett provided an update about his fitness along with a timeline for when he expects to return to training:

"I can probably get cleared by like six weeks from surgery, but it'll be like mid-vacation time so probably not until like eight or nine weeks I'll start actually riding and training on the bike. I'll probably do some more weeks of strengthening up my ankle, the joint and my leg and stuff like that to kind of get that back up to my left."

When asked whether he would be ready to return in Anaheim for Round 1 of the 2027 SMX season, Jett responded "Oh yeah."